Villagers cut off from broadband by car crash
SOME village residents have been left without a broadband internet connection for more than a week after a car smashed into a roadside cabinet.
The broadband service throughout Cwmfelin, near Maesteg, went down after the crash at 4pm on New Year’s Eve, cutting the service to the majority of residents.
Resident Roger Luke said a car mounted the pavement opposite the Cross Inn on Maesteg Road and collided with the BT box “which contained all the fibre optics”.
Openreach, which is part of BT, said on Tuesday that all customers should now be back in service.
But a spokesman added: “Obviously, as with any major repairs, there could be a few customers that still have problems.
“Any customers who are still experiencing service issues will need to report it immediately to their In- ternet Service Provider who can make Openreach aware.”
Mr Luke, 65, said his and another residents’ broadband service remained down on Monday, although much of the village had been reconnected.
He has criticised BT for not keeping residents properly informed about how long repairs would take.
“In all fairness it’s in an awkward place,” he said.
“But you have been given more information than anyone in the village has.
“When I rang BT all they asked was if I had reported it. But their box was sitting there wrapped up in police tape.”
Mr Luke said he can still access the internet via his mobile phone and has been checking the BT website for updates.
But he said it repeatedly stated the fault would be fixed by 2pm “the following day” all of last week and that didn’t happen.
“It’s not only affecting BT customers, it’s Virgin and Sky who are using their cables as well,” he said.
“It was a catastrophic failure and I don’t think they have put enough effort in myself into repairing it and into informing us.
He added that a business owner in the village had complained they have lost money as a result.
A spokesman for Openreach said: “One of our engineers attended the damaged roadside cabinet on Maesteg Road in Cwmfelin on New Year’s Day to investigate and ensure the site was made safe following a road traffic accident.
“Due to the location of the cabinet we had to arrange for traffic lights to be in place in order to carry out the repair works safely.” ”